Several manufacturing techniques are known in order to produce brushes, in particular toothbrushes. A key issue is how to fasten the cleaning elements in the brush head. Conventionally, brush heads were produced by injection molding providing a plurality of blind ended tuft holes wherein the bristle tufts were fastened in a U-shape form by metal anchors. Anchor-free or hot-tufting methods fasten the cleaning elements in the brush head by means of a forming technique. Usually, the bristle tufts are melted at their ends to form thickenings in order to increase the pull-out resistance of the tufts. These thickenings can be over-molded with a plastic material to form a brush head or part thereof.
Nowadays, cleaning element fields of brush heads, in particular toothbrush heads comprise elastomeric elements. These elastomeric elements might be produced completely from elastomeric material or they might comprise a core from a hard plastic material (US2012/0246857A1). Usually, the elastomeric elements are formed by injection molding techniques and might be mounted to the brush head using stapling (US2012/0246857A1), clipsing or any other snap and fit connection (US2011/0000041A1). Alternatively, the elastomeric cleaning elements are formed together with other elastomeric parts on the surface of the brush or the brush head itself (US2011/0061189). For example, a brush head can be over-molded with an elastomeric material forming a tongue cleaner on the backside of the brush head and elastomeric cleaning elements on the front side, i.e. the brushing side of the brush head. However, due to adhesion and geometric requirements the design flexibility for said kind of cleaning element fields is relatively low. Elastomeric cleaning elements have to be made from the same material as the tongue cleaner or other elastomeric elements on the brush, namely the gripping faces or some design elements in the area of the brush neck or the handle. Further, the elastomeric cleaning elements are arranged at the outer surface of the cleaning element field due to the geometric restriction during the over-molding process. Thus, there is a need for a method of manufacturing toothbrushes comprising elastomeric cleaning elements with greater design flexibility, regarding the arrangement of the elastomeric cleaning elements and the material which can be used.